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ICQ

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ICQ
Initial releaseNovember 1996
Stable release
6.5 / November 26, 2008; 15 years ago (2008-11-26)
Repository
Operating systemWindows, Macintosh, mobile phones
TypeInstant messaging client
LicenseAdware
Websitehttp://www.icq.com

ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis, now owned by Time Warner's AOL subsidiary. The first version of the program was released in November 1996 and ICQ became one of the first Internet-wide instant messaging services. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you". America Online (AOL) acquired Mirabilis on June 8, 1998 for $407 million. Today ICQ is used by over 31 million users worldwide.[citation needed]

History

Mirabilis was first established by five Israelis: Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father Yossi Vardi. They recognized that many people were online accessing the Internet through a non-UNIX operating system, and that there was no software that enabled an immediate connection between them.

What was missing was the technology for locating and connecting the users in the Windows operating system.

The technology Mirabilis developed for ICQ was distributed free of charge. The technology's success caused AOL to acquire Mirabilis on June 8, 1998, for $407 million. At the time, this was the highest price ever paid to purchase an Israeli technology company.

QQ, a Chinese instant messaging program and network, originally used the name OICQ. This named conflicted with ICQ, and the company changed the name to QQ.

Features

  • ICQ6 was launched on April 17 , 2007, and offered a single communication platform that combines the various user options: IM services, free SMS from ICQ to mobile, voice and video communication. The software's new sound gallery was orchestrated by the Israeli psychedelic trance duo Infected Mushroom. Among the new additional features in ICQ6 are Quick IM, which allows users to send a short message without opening a conversation window, a “follow me” service directly to the user’s mobile, a multi-chat service and Zlango support, the animated icons language.

Additional products

ICQ provides all users additional services and content products:

  1. ICQ TV—An online video magazine. The magazine broadcasts content for teens 24/7.
  2. ICQ SIM Card (together with United Mobile)—A SIM card that enables users traveling across Europe to use their cellular telephone while paying a discount price.
  3. ICQ Game Center—A games platform that enables the user to play with and /or against other users.
  4. ICQ2Go—A web IM option for users who cannot download the program onto their computer (for various reasons, like firewall for instance). ICQ2Go uses a ‘port-80’ browser for this type of communication feature.

UIN

ICQ users are identified by numbers called UIN, distributed in sequential order. The UIN was first invented by Mirabilis, as the user name assigned to each user upon registration. The meaning is either Universal Internet Number or Unified Identification Number. Every user receives a UIN when first registering to ICQ. As of ICQ6, users are also able to log in using the specific e-mail address they associated with their UIN during the registration process. Unlike other IM software or web applications, on ICQ the only permanent user info is the UIN, although it is possible to search for other users using their associated e-mail address or any other detail they have made public (by updating it in the public profile). In addition, the user can change all of his or her personal information, including screen name and e-mail address, without having to re-register. Since 2000, ICQ and AIM users are able to add each other to their contact list without the need for any external clients. As a response to UIN theft or sale of attractive UINs, ICQ started to store email addresses previously associated to a UIN [1]. As such, UINs that are stolen can sometimes be reclaimed. This applies only if (since 1999 and onwards) a valid primary email address was entered into the user profile.

Development history

First versions

ICQ was developed in 1996 by Mirabilis. The company was founded by four young Israelis: Yair Goldfinger, Arik Vardi, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir. After AOL bought it, it was managed by Ariel Yarnitsky and Avi Shechter.

America Online acquired Mirabilis on June 8, 1998 for $407 million, ($287 million in cash and $120 million over a three-year period based on growth performance levels).

Later versions

  • ICQ 2000 incorporated into Notes and Reminder features.
  • ICQ 2001 included server-side storage of the contact list, allowing for its synchronization on multiple computers.
  • On December 19, 2002, AOL Time Warner announced that ICQ had been issued a United States patent for instant messaging.
  • ICQ 2002 was the last completely advertising-free ICQ version.
  • ICQ Pro 2003b was the first ICQ version to use the ICQ protocol version 10. However, ICQ 5 and 5.1 use version 9 of the protocol. ICQ 2002 and 2003a used version 8 of the ICQ protocol. Earlier versions (ICQ 2001b and all ICQ clients before it) used ICQ protocol version 7.
  • ICQ 4 and later ICQ 5 (released on Monday, February 7, 2005), were upgrades on ICQ Lite. One addition was Xtraz, which offers games and features intended to appeal to younger users of the Internet. ICQ Lite was originally an idea to offer the lighter users of instant messaging an alternative client which was a smaller download and less resource-hungry for relatively slow computers.
  • ICQ 5 introduced skins support. There are few official skins available for the current ICQ 5.1 at the official website; however, a number of user-generator skins have been made available for download.
  • ICQ 6, released on April 17, 2007, is the first major update since ICQ 4. The user interface has been redesigned using Boxely, the same rendering engine used in AIM Triton. This change adds new features such as the ability to send IMs directly from the client's contact list. This version's sound clips were produced/augmented by the psychedelic trance duo Infected Mushroom. ICQ has recently started forcing users of v5.1 to upgrade to version 6. Those who do not upgrade will find their older version of ICQ does not start up. Although the upgrade to version 6 should be seen as a positive thing, some users may find that useful features such as sending multiple files at one time is no longer supported in the new version. At the beginning of July 2008, a network upgrade forced users to stop using ICQ 5.1 - applications that identified themselves as ICQ 5, such as Pidgin, were forced to identify themselves as ICQ 6. There seems to be no alternative for users other than using a different IM program or patching ICQ 5.1 with a special application.

ICQ, a short film about ICQ, was directed by Greg McLean, who later wrote Wolf Creek. The film was described by its writer as a mystery/drama, and it concerns a man who while surfing the ICQ network comes across a woman whose acquaintance he could well have done without. The relationship runs the gauntlet of intrigue through to the sinister. It was released in 2001. The short film took out the "Best Director" award in October 2001 at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. On return to his home soil in Australia, McLean's film was nominated for Best Sound Design (short film) for the prestigious AFI (Australian Film Institute) awards in 2002.

ICQ also plays an important role in a Polish popular novel Samotność w sieci (Loneliness in the Net) as its main protagonists accidentally find each other in the Internet and, via ICQ, they develop a passionate feeling.

The famous high-pitch "Uh-oh!" was featured in the chorus of Prozzak's song, www.nevergetoveryou.

Criticism

ICQ has been heavily criticized for privacy issues and many users consider later versions as bloatware. Availability of the services can be often under question, and proper message delivery is not guaranteed as well.

Spam

ICQ is often used for distribution of unwanted advertisement and spam. UIN is a number which is incremented when a new user registers. This makes it simple to find existing targets for spam, abundance of which forces many users to install antispam-bots for filtering automatically distributed messages.

When accepting "ICQ Terms Of Service — Acceptable Use Policy" (2000), a user gives all the copyright in the posted information to ICQ Inc.[1] This implies that ICQ Inc. may publish, distribute etc. any messages sent through the system that could be meant to be private:

"You agree that by posting any material or information anywhere on the ICQ Services and Information you surrender your copyright and any other proprietary right in the posted material or information. You further agree that ICQ Inc. is entitled to use at its own discretion any of the posted material or information in any manner it deems fit, including, but not limited to, publishing the material or distributing it."

It's not possible to cancel/delete an ICQ account.

Pressure on unauthorized clients

AOL follows an aggressive policy as to "unauthorized" ICQ-clients thus pursuing commercial interests.

  • In July 2008 changes were done on ICQ servers resulting in many unofficial clients not working. The users received an official notification from "ICQ System" contact.
  • On December 9, 2008, another changes on ICQ servers were done. The clients that were sending Client IDs not matching ICQ 5.1 or higher, stopped working.
  • On December 29, 2008, ICQ press service distributed a statement qualifying alternative clients as dangerous.[2]
  • On January 21, 2009, ICQ servers started blocking all unofficial clients from CIS countries.[3] Users from Russia and Ukraine receive a message from UIN 1:

"Системное сообщение

ICQ не поддерживает используемую вами версию. Скачайте бесплатную авторизованную версию ICQ с официального web-сайта ICQ.

System Message

The version you are using is not supported by ICQ. Download a free authorized ICQ version from ICQ’s official website."

On icq.com an "important message" for Russian-speaking ICQ users appears: "ICQ осуществляет поддержку только авторизированных версий программ: ICQ Lite и ICQ 6.5." ("ICQ supports only authorized versions of programs: ICQ Lite and ICQ 6.5.")

  • On February 3, 2009 a situation of January 21 repeated.

Clients

AOL's OSCAR network protocol used by ICQ is proprietary, but a number of people have created more or less compatible, ICQ Terms of Service violating third-party clients, by using reverse engineering and protocol descriptions available on the net. These clients include:

  • Adium: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Jabber, and others, for Mac OS X;
  • Ayttm: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, and Jabber;
  • bitlbee: IRC gateway, supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, Google Talk, and Jabber;
  • centericq: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC and Jabber, text-based;
  • climm (formerly mICQ): text-based;
  • Digsby: supports ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber, and social networking updated for Windows;
  • Easy message: supports MSN, AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo!;
  • eBuddy: web-based, supports MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, Google Talk and MySpace Chat;
  • Fire: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, and Jabber, for Mac OS X;
  • iChat: uses ICQ's UIN as an AIM screenname, for Mac OS X;
  • Kopete: supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, Google Talk, IRC, Gadu-Gadu, Novell GroupWise Messenger and others, for Unix-like;
  • Licq: supports ICQ, AIM and MSN, for Unix-like;
  • Meebo: AJAX-based, supports ICQ, AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk and Jabber;
  • Meetro: IM and social networking combined with location; supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!;
  • Miranda IM: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Google Talk, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, BNet and others, for Windows;
  • Naim: ncurses-based;
  • Pidgin (formerly Gaim): supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, Gtalk, MSN, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC and others;
  • Proteus: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, AIM, MSN, Jabber and iChat Rendezvous, for Mac OS X;
  • QIP: supports ICQ, AIM, and partially Jabber and XIMSS;
  • qutIM: Qt-based, cross-platform;
  • Sim-IM supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, Jabber, for Windows and Unix-like;
  • stICQ: supports ICQ, for Symbian OS;
  • Trillian: supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Google Talk, Jabber and others;
  • R&Q: supports ICQ, MRA, for Windows;
  • Smarticq: for mIRC.

AOL has recently begun making its ICQ software more AIM-like by adding AIM Smilies, as well as introducing cross AIM/ICQ communication. Users on ICQ are able to communicate with AIM users; however, such capability is in beta stages.

See also

References

  1. ^ "ICQ Terms Of Service — Acceptable Use Policy"
  2. ^ Официальное заявление ICQ: использовать QIP — опасно (in Russian)
  3. ^ AOL Engaged in Dubious Competition Practices for ICQ in Russia
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